Computer user interface devices, such as keyboards, have features which have not changed much in several decades, such as alphanumeric keys in the standard QWERTY character arrangement. However, keyboards have also included an increasing variety of newer, more computer- or application-specific features, as the capabilities of the computers have increased. For instance, separate numeric keypads and function keys (F1, F2, etc.) which came into use with IBM compatible computers in the 1980s have become ubiquitous.
More recently, however, the capabilities of computers have expanded so much that a wide variety of other user interface devices may advantageously be used. One way of utilizing such capability is to provide a user with a workstation having a variety of peripheral devices. This arrangement has the drawbacks of high total cost for all the interface devices, and great space requirements.
A solution to these drawbacks would be to integrate these additional features into keyboards. However, keyboards with numeric keypads and function keys are already large enough that they take up a great deal of desk space. These problems will only get worse as more and more functions are designed into keyboards.
Moreover, manufactures must allow for the added costs of designing such added-feature keyboards. Such costs must unfortunately, be passed on to customers. Additionally, where a variety of different types of new keyboard functions are to be provided, manufacturers must provide a disadvantageously large number of different keyboard models, each one incorporating the standard keyboard features as well as the particular set of new features the buyers of that model of keyboard will be using.
Accordingly, there is a need for a new approach to keyboard design, according to which added features are provided to users, on manageably sized keyboards, for which design and manufacturing costs are kept under control.